PALMS. 869 
Somosomo dialect, which suppresses the letter k, Saii, 
there are never more than one or two solitary speci- 
mens to be met with in any place, the demand for the 
leaves being so limited, that they prove sufficient to 
supply it. The fans are from two to three feet across, 
and have a border made of a flexible wood. ‘They 
serve as a protection both from the sun and rain; in 
the latter instance the fan is laid almost horizontally on 
the head, the water being allowed to run down behind 
the back of the bearer. From this the Fijian language 
has borrowed its name for “umbrella,” a contrivance 
introduced by Europeans, terming it “ ai viu,” that being 
one of the names by which fans are known. The leaves 
are never employed as thatch, though their texture 
would seem to recommend them for that purpose; the 
trunk, however, is occasionally used for ridge-beams. 
The palm seldom attains more than thirty feet in height. 
Its trunk is smooth, straight, and unarmed, and from 
ten to twelve inches in diameter at the base. The 
crown has a globular shape, and is composed of about 
twenty leaves, the petioles of which are unarmed and 
three feet four inches long, and densely covered at the 
base with a mass of brown fibres. The blade of the 
leaves is rounded at the base, fan-shaped, four feet seven 
inches long, three feet three inches broad, and when 
young, as is the petiole, densely covered with whitish- 
brown down, which, however, as the leaf advances in 
age, gradually disappears. From the axil of every leaf 
flowers are put forward, enveloped in several very fibrous 
‘flaccid spathes, which rapidly decay, and have quite a 
vagged appearance even before the flowers are open. 
2B 
